Hair Removal

IPL

Introduction

The primary indication for Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) is for permanent hair removal but it may also be useful in a variety of other skin problems. IPL may be used as a method to treat a rash or pigmentation due to sun damage, acne rosacea, broken blood vessels on the skin (telangiectasia) as well as vascular and pigmented birth marks.

IPL works in a similar way to lasers in that light energy is absorbed into particular target cells. The light energy is converted to heat energy, which causes damage to the specific target areas,to permamently remove an unwanted feature.

IPL therapy may also be used as an effective treatment for wrinkles and lines as a non-ablative resurfacing technique, which means that it targets the deeper layers of skin (dermis) without affecting the superficial layers (epidermis). One major advantage of IPL therapy is it’s minimal downtime; after a treatment the patient can return to almost all activities immediately.

Hair Removal

Mr Banwell, a Cosmetic Surgeon, mainly offers hair removal from his clinics in Sussex, Kent and London. In terms of effective hair removal, broad-spectrum light is applied to the surface of the skin by a hand-held device. The light travels through the skin until it reaches the hair shafts or root where the light is converted to heat energy and the hair shaft are instantly vaporized and you can see the results. The heat radiated by the hair also destroys the hair-producing papilla or the entire hair follicle thus resulting in permanent hair removal.